BNL gets $8M for electric vehicle battery research

Brookhaven National Laboratory is getting $8 million in federal funding for two research projects into electric vehicle batteries.

The funding, announced Wednesday, is part of $209 million in U.S. Department of Energy funding for 26 electric vehicle research projects.

In one of the projects, a team of Brookhaven researchers will seek to identify battery materials with increased energy density, which could cut the size and weight of batteries used in electric vehicles and increase the vehicles' range.

Brookhaven Lab will receive $1.3 million per year for five years as part of the second phase of funding in the Battery500 consortium.

"Our team has made important discoveries over the past five years during Battery500 phase 1, which resulted in increased funding for Brookhaven," said chemist Xiao-Qing Yang, who will serve as general coordinator of the project.

Another Brookhaven team will study electrolytes for solid state batteries.

Electrolytes let charged ions flow between a battery's anode and cathode.

Electric vehicle battery research increasingly is turning toward solid-state batteries, which could cut the risk of fires in batteries that use liquid electrolytes. Funding for the Brookhaven team is $300,000 per year for five years.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.